Quick Cryptic 835 by Hurley

Author   mohn2Posted on Categories Quick Cryptic
An interesting offering from Hurley today, with half-a-dozen proper nouns spicing up the grid. No words likely to be beyond most solvers’ ken, though the fame of 3A might not have carried beyond the Channel (or even north of Watford Gap). COD to 17A for the nice anagram/surface combo.

I probably won’t have Internet access from early Monday morning until some time on Tuesday afternoon, meaning it’s unlikely I’ll be able to reply to comments in that period. As always though, the hive mind will no doubt come to the rescue if you have any pressing questions.

The puzzle can be found here if the usual channels are unavailable: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/puzzles/crossword/20170522/23940/

Definitions are underlined, * = anagram, {} = omission

Across
1 Plant accused here (4)
DOCK – double definition, the first referring to (Chambers): “A polygonaceous weed (genus Rumex) with large leaves and a long root”, the second referring to a court room
3 Place near South coast where side path collapses (8)
SPITHEAD – anagram of (collapses) SIDE PATH. Don’t know how well-known this is beyond these shores, but Spithead is an area of the Solent at the entrance to Portsmouth harbour, traditionally used for Royal Navy reviews by the monarch of the day. If you’ve never heard of it, fortunately this is the only likely arrangement of letters once you have the checkers.
8 As expected, wine unopened after heavy defeat (7)
ROUTINE – ROUT (heavy defeat) + {w}INE (wine unopened, i.e. the word “wine” without its first letter)
10 Dramatist is brilliant, so educational — Norwegian originally (5)
IBSEN – initial letters (originally) of Is Brilliant, So Educational – Norwegian. Hurley has given us a surface that hints further at the answer, as Ibsen was definitely Norwegian, probably brilliant, and arguably educational.
11 Too strict about summary, English (11)
OVERPRECISE – OVER (about) + PRECIS (summary) + E (English)
13 Transatlantic uncle’s performing as strong man? (6)
SAMSON – SAM’S (Transatlantic uncle’s – a reference to Uncle Sam) + ON (performing, as in “Who’s on at Glastonbury this year?”)
15 Farm animal’s look (6)
GANDER – double definition, the second a slang word seen in phrases like “to take a gander at”
17 Mischief an ensign has at sea? (11)
SHENANIGANS – anagram of (at sea) AN ENSIGN HAS
20 Bring up commendation, initially ignored (5)
RAISE – {p}RAISE (commendation, initially ignored, i.e. the word “praise” without its first letter)
21 Heat source from brazier, if nobody about? (7)
BONFIRE – hidden reversed (from … about) in braziER, IF NOBody
22 More attractive before — not drinking. That is right (8)
PRETTIER – PRE (before) + TT (not drinking, i.e. teetotal) + IE (That is) + R (right)
23 It flows in city — Newcastle (4)
TYNE – hidden in (in) ciTY – NEwcastle. Much like in 10A, the surface gives additional help towards finding the answer.
Down
1 Place to sleep on river for rodent (8)
DORMOUSE – DORM (Place to sleep) + OUSE (river)
2 Reason why Australian is in Church? (5)
CAUSE – AUS (Australian) in CE (Church, i.e. Church of England)
4 Favour proportional representation, free to be developed (6)
PREFER – PR (proportional representation) + anagram of (to be developed) FREE
5 Islander I’d wrongly associated with Indian art (11)
TRINIDADIAN – anagram of (wrongly associated) I’D + INDIAN ART
6 After exams regularly nurse in part of capital (4,3)
EAST END – E{x}A{m}S (exams regularly, i.e. alternate letters of the word “exams”) + TEND (nurse)
7 Animal’s home over time — a hollow (4)
DENT – DEN (Animal’s home) + T (time)
9 The writer’s expert, vehement, he leaves — a change for better? (11)
IMPROVEMENT – I’M (The writer’s) + PRO (expert) + VE{he}MENT (vehement, he leaves, i.e. the word “vehement” without the “he”)
12 Chat idly about river near simple home of Wordsworth (8)
GRASMERE – GAS (Chat idly) about R (river), + MERE (simple), to give the Lake District village where Wordsworth was living when he wrote I wandered lonely as a cloud, aka Daffodils
14 Large religious service I have joined (7)
MASSIVE – MASS (religious service) + I’VE (I have)
16 Artist and doctor on initially leisurely evening stroll (6)
RAMBLE – RA (Artist) + MB (doctor) + LE (initially leisurely evening, i.e. the first letters of the words “leisurely” and “evening”)
18 Girl welcomes Italian friendship (5)
AMITY – AMY (Girl) around (welcomes) IT (Italian)
19 Having power for day, leave out this rugby forward (4)
PROP – DROP (leave out), but with the D (day) replaced by a P (power)

26 comments on “Quick Cryptic 835 by Hurley”

  1. I took much more time than I should have on this one, with 15ac and 21ac especially resistant. I didn’t solve 12d, I remembered the name, after a long time and a checker or two. I’ll add my vote to Mohn’s for COD. 9:43.
  2. 11 minutes, so not as hard as I found Hurley’s last puzzle. No problems with 12dn as it’s all lake district names around where I live. Windermere, Coniston, Grasmere and many others are featured.
  3. … is at the easier end of the spectrum but livened up by a handful of unusual words, none of which you need to know in order to be able to enter the answers with confidence.
  4. 13 minutes with a pause at the end in the NE. The thought process re crosswords is odd – I can’t see now why my LOI was gander at 15ac.
  5. This felt like quite a tricky start to the week for me. I made life harder for myself by looking for some sort of art in 5d for a while, the hidden in 21a was very well disguised and gets my COD and I was very happy/relieved to finally get my LOI – the unknown 12d. Completed in 21 minutes.
    Thanks to Hurley and the blogger
  6. Was horribly stuck on 6 down – I was convinced it was an anagram of islander I’d and the I of Indian. It was very clever of Hurley, because all the checkers were in that anagram too!
  7. Very enjoyable, timing about 30 mins.

    Dnk 3a spithead, and 15a gander, 6d east end, 12d Grasmere took the longest to crack.

    In 12d mere for simple didn’t feel quite right, but checking the dictionary I presume it is like:

    “his stomach rebelled at the mere/simple thought of food”

    COD 6d east end.

  8. Some well concealed stuff here! I took 10:52 to finish and didn’t see the parsing for 19d until I came here. Knew GRASMERE, but also spotted the parsing as I wrote it in. Had to write down the fodder for 17a even with all the checkers. DOCK was FOI, but for some reason just couldn’t see 2d for ages and it was my LOI. Thanks Hurley and Mohn2.

    Edited at 2017-05-22 08:49 am (UTC)

  10. Finished before London Bridge.

    Thought 21ac was very clever, it’s not easy to conceal a run-on like that.

    Could not parse 19dn – the answer was obvious but not the reasoning and I had to come on here and read the blog carefully before I got it!

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

    Templar

  11. I had a bit of a nightmare on this, somehow managing to spell TRINIDADIAN incorrectly, with an “a” instead of the second “i”. I was therefore left with OVERP_E_A_E for 11ac, so biffed in OVERPREPARE, which obviously doesn’t work. I particularly liked 18dn, which reminded me of Amity Island, where some bathers were apparently injured by a large predator in 1975. Amity, as you know, means friendship. Gribb.
  12. Despite plenty of practice on harder puzzles over the weekend, I did not find this easy. After about 20 minutes most of the NW corner remained empty.
    I did know Grasmere, had never heard of Spithead despite knowing the South Coast really well (I thought).
    My last two were 11a -quite tricky I thought -and finally 4d Prefer – not hard once you’ve got it.
    29 minutes in total. COD to 21a as I did not even realise it was hidden! David
    1. I think the traditional Royal review of the navy when it takes place off Portsmouth is known as the Spithead review,, and that’s where I knew it from.
      1. Don’t know why, but I remembered it from the 18th century mutiny.
  13. 30 minutes for me, so only just on target. I found this okay, but just a little slow-going. I too didn’t parse PROP fully, and just biffed it in. Quite a hard clue for the Quickie, I think.
    1. That kind of “swap one letter for another” clue is not common and requires careful reading when it does appear – apart from having to spot the device in the first place, it can be very easy to put in the pre-swap answer instead of the post-swap. This regularly trips up solvers at the Times Crossword Competition.
  14. No problems with this – a nice 16d over a Costa waiting for the car to be cleaned. 11a needed to be reworked to parse properly. COD 22a FOI 1a LOI 15a where initially I was thinking mammals rather than fowl. Thanks Mohn2 for explaining my biffed 19d and to Hurley for a gentle start to the week. I suppose I spent about about 30 minutes easing my way through.
  15. SPITHEAD took me ages, up here in Holderness. Looking forward to the double definition clue “Reject Yorkshire spit” (SPURN) one day! I made the same assumption as Erlik27 on 5D, but saw the error of my ways finally. COD was BONFIRE for me, too. Very clever!
    1. It is definitely a crosswording advantage to live in the south-east so I always savour the occasional “northern” answer in the Times crossword – though I will admit I had to look up what/where Spurn was! Redcar crops up fairly frequently and is just down the road from me. There are several other Yorkshire folk on this forum but I suspect our local knowledge is destined to remain underutilised when it comes to national newspaper crosswords.
      1. Perhaps we should form some sort of protest group 🙂 It also helps, I’ve found, if you have a working knowledge of cricket and rugby…I, unfortunately, have not. But I do know my alcohol!
        In the unlikely event you’re ever near Spurn (nobody comes here just “passing through”), take a walk along the spit. It’s beautiful, and well-deserving of my first attempt at a clue.
  16. Probably being very dim here, but I don’t get 8ac ‘wine unopened’. Surely wine unopened would retain its first letter? Thanks to anyone who can clarify this!
    1. I think they mean without its opening. Didn’t occur to me either.

      Edited at 2017-05-22 08:00 pm (UTC)

  17. A real slog for me. Tyne went in easily. Then I worked out the anagram at 3ac. 10ac seemed to obvious to be correct, until I spotted the initial letters.
    The rest were a struggle and some, I had no idea of the parsing so thanks to mohn2 for the explanations. I’m not used to looking for concealed answers backwards (21ac).

    Have just bought an old copy of ‘How to Master the Times Crossword’ so things might improve!

    Edited at 2017-05-22 08:00 pm (UTC)

    1. I haven’t read that particular book though I believe it’s highly regarded. I would certainly recommend that any new (or new-ish) solvers get hold of one of the “how to” books and read it cover to cover. Once you have some background in the framework upon which cryptic crosswords are built, the logic behind individual clues and answers should be more understandable. In some sense, these books provide the “theory”, whereas solving puzzles (and reading the blogs) provides the “practice” – I think both are necessary in order to acquire some solving expertise.

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